Today APN sent the following message to all House offices:
Dear [staffer name],
Later
today (or sometime tomorrow) the House will vote on a resolution,
introduced by House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman
(D-CA) and brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, opposing
Palestinian efforts to promote unilateral recognition of a Palestinian
state.
The Berman resolution includes elements with which
Americans for Peace Now agrees - like support for negotiations, support
for a two-state solution, and opposition to Palestinian unilateral
actions that contradict peace efforts. However, it omits one element so
important that its absence renders the resolution problematic: it
omits any mention of Israel's obligation to refrain from unilateral
actions that contradict peace efforts - like the ongoing settlement
activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (The resolution does quote
Secretary of State Clinton's rejection of "unilateral steps by either
party" in its preambular section, but it says nothing about this in the
resolved clauses.)
If the goal of the Berman resolution is truly
to oppose unilateral actions, support negotiations, and promote a peace
agreement that delivers a two-state solution, it unfortunately falls
short of the mark. By singling out only Palestinian actions, it risks
sending the message that Congress does not object to unilateral Israeli
acts, no matter how corrosive they may be to peace efforts.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore delivered a brilliant statement on Wednesday laying out the problems with H. Res. 1765 - Rep. Berman's (D-CA) resolution opposing Palestinian efforts to achieve recognition of a Palestinian state. We commend her and highly recommend her statement as an example of what a truly pro-Israel, pro-peace position sounds like.